Orient Bookstore
by Zhongmao Dan
Summary: (College!AU) Finally arriving at College, Matthew is extremely excited to start his first year away from home and on his own. ... But realizes he doesn't have all the required equipment with him. Well, there's always the school bookshop!
1. Chapter 1

Matthew took a shaky breath, keeping his breathing at a calm pace. "Just a little more..." he muttered to himself.

His hands tensed, balled into fists, then relaxed, his jaw repeatedly clenched and unclenched. He was a mess of emotions right now and he knew it. At least he was the only one who seemed to notice and that was good.

Matthew was looking out of the window, a dim horizon and barley some peaks of sunlight rising in the further distance. His chin was now resting on his palm, his fingers ever so lightly tapping against it. His packed bag was closely put on the seat next to himself, and was slightly opened, showing a shirt, book and what looked to be a worn journel. Sitting across from him was the sleeping figure (and rather loud snoring) of his friend Alfred. He sighed and closed his eyes as his fingers continued to tap against his chin.

Alfred and himself were currently riding a train, which would take about a day to get to their destination. This day was going to be the first Matthew would be away from home... without his parents.

This was his first day beginning college.

He had sent out a good number of applications to several colleges, but when his mother had come in with the letter, he was surprised at the college that had accepted him. It was a well known college, and usually had rich kids and intellegent kids enroll there. Though to be honest, the more surprising news was when Alfred, who now had his face pressed closely to the window as he turned to the side in his sleep, had called him later that day telling him that he _also_ got accepted.

Now it wasn't like Matthew thought Alfred was not intelligent. He actually knew that sometimes Alfred was in fact more intelligent than himself, but it was just that most of the time... he wasn't very serious. Almost not at all at times. But nonetheless, they had both been super excited at the idea of going to the same college once they graduated out of high school, and now that it happened... it was awesome simply put.

Though... a college in a different state? Far away from home? That's what had Matthew feeling so conflicted. He really hadn't wanted to leave his mom by herself. They were very close and he had wanted to stay home while in college. Alfred of course, was able to convince Matthew enough to agree with going, since the opportunity was really quite grand.

Matthew moved his hand from under his chin, and proceeded to yawn.

'_Maybe I should get some sleep...'_ He thought to himself as he lazily looked over to Alfred, his face still pressed close to the window. Matthew cracked a small smile, his eyes starting to blink sleepily now.

'_Yeah... just.. a few minutes would be good...' _The thought was barley heard as his eyes shut, and his breathing calmed down as he fell asleep.

"Yo, Mattie, wake up... Matt... **Matthew Yo**!" Matthew woke with a horrible start, flinching and managing to hit the back of his head on the window. He slightly groaned at the pain, rubbing the sore spot as he blinked his eyes open and giving a somewhat sleepy glare at Aflred.

"Jeez, Alfred, you shouldn't yell so early, espically on a train..."

"...Matt what are you talkin' about? It's like noon."

"...what?"

"It's noon. Like, right now?" Alfred chuckled. "Maybe you got brain damage from hitting your head so hard!"

Matthew gave Alfred a 'I'm not amused' look before strecthing and taking a look out the window. Alfred was right of course, the sun being high up in the sky and the outskirt of a city pretty close on the horizon. He relaxed back into his seat, his hand still over the sore spot on his head. He raised an eyebrow at Alfred.

"So how long since you woke up then?" Alfred scratched his chin and shrugged.

"I would have to say three hours ago, and man, it's boring just sitting here! I think we should've just come by car, you know, road trip-y?" He smiled, crossing his legs as his arms were crossed as well. "But seriously dude, I've been trying to wake you up for the past hour. You are about the deepest sleeper I know." He slightly pouted, and Matthew had guessed he really had tried this time, aside form speaking loudly and such. Matthew just smiled and shrugged as well.

"Sorry if I need sleep Alfred, I just shut down and I won't wake until I get my sleep. I've told you that beofre."

"Doesn't make it more acceptable really. I've told_ you _that." Matthew made a small snorting sound and rolled his eyes.

"You can live with it." Alfred just rolled his eyes in response, and looked out the window, trying to find a more interesting subject to focus on. Matthew lightly chuckled knowing full well he would just start talking to him again. But for now, Matthew looked out of the window as well, the city coming closer with every few minutes.

'_Well, we're almost there...' _Matthew thought quietly. '_I just hope 'there' is a good place...'_


	2. Drop off

Matthew stepped off the train, his bag strap over his shoulder, holding on with a tight grip, as if he were carrying something worth a fortune. Well, basically it was for something that didn't cost cheap so perhaps this was pretty accurate.

He was also a bit cautious about places like these.

Matthew was an avid reader, and he knew that large, open public places were the best for pickpockets and the like to strike, and honestly, fiction or not, he didn't want to take any chances with his belongings, especially in a completely new environment.

Alfred, on the other hand, was probably just I his, 'zone'. This usually just consisted of him going to a new location, and he could find anything or any building needed, as if he had lived there his whole life. Though oddly it was usually just within U.S. states, like this one time they had gone vacationing-

Matthew's train of thought was suddenly interrupted, rather rudely he would say, by Alfred who had finally gotten his stuff down and had slapped his shoulder in a sort of 'we should get movin' now, K?' fashion, which resulted in Matthew, calmly, giving him a slightly dirty look, though Alfred just smiled back.

"Alright Mattie' bro, where to first? Maybe we should see if this place has any cool hangouts, maybe secret places and the like? OR we could totally find us some cool babes too.~" He slightly elbowed Matthew in the side, or, at least tried to, as walking within the large crowd mad it hard for the duo to walk side by side.

Matthew's cheeks, on what seemed to be an accord of their own, tinted a slight pink. He just rolled his eyes in response, and in a very obvious manner as to the fact he thought that the statement was ridiculous, which made Alfred pout.

"Dude, when are you gonna try and get your game on?" This blatant sentence made Matthew give him an even dirtier look than before.

"We need to find out where the college is first dumbass. If we don't do that it will probably be a while to find our dorms." Alfred, who could now walk by his side as they exited the train station, elbowed him more successfully as he raised an eyebrow with a wide grin.

"Ahhhhh, I get what ya mean bro! Good thinkin', we'll need a room beforehand of course-"

"Alfred!"

"What? It's true!"

Matthew pinched the bride of his nose, his cheeks having obviously heated up.

"Alfred, I did not mean…. That. At all. We are not going out to pick up girls oka-"

"We could also go for guys, I mean I'm down with it if that's what you prefer-"

"ALFRED!"

* * *

((So surprise surprise I'm updating slightly! I'll leave this lil chapter here while I try to get the story going again. It'll be fun, I promise!))


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